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Nails in the coffin

Investor State Dispute Resolution, the EU & TTIP

I have just submitted a short comment opposing the inclusion of Investor State Dispute Resolution (ISDR) clauses in the EU’s negotiating position on TTIP, and urge you to join me. I used this web site, at sumofus.org. While their tag line, “Fighting for people before profits” is reminiscent of Lewisham’s rag bag of careerists and trots, both ISDR and all the non-tariff extensions to TTIP should be opposed and the concept of putting people before profit is equally laudable. I said,

My overall assessment is that this is completely the wrong direction and forms no part of an inter-state trade agreement.

Investor State Dispute Resolution proposals entrench the rights of multi-national corporations against the rights of citizens and their governments. They do this in a way that will make it impossible for democracies to regulate business. This will jeopardise equal access to public services, environmental protection, health service delivery, [&] child protection [measures]. The actions in the New York Courts with respect to Argentina’s debt management suggest that it will make the democratic and accountable conduct of macro-economic policy impossible.

I could and should have added that ISDR will make reversing privatisation illegal, which we need to consider in the light of the Tories privatisation of the NHS and Education, the US company’s purchases of vast chunks of the UK’s public service provision and any proposals to renationalise the rail or utilities, even to the extent of mandating a price freeze. This is all also explored in George Monbiot’s article, “A global ban on left wing politics”.